Mattingly, Alan

Alan Mattingly is the author of Plato’s Atlantis and the Sea Peoples: A Review of Context and Evidence ^[1948]. I have been unable to find any information about him, which is unfortunate as I consider this one of the best Atlantis-related books to be published in quite some time. Currently, it is just available as a Kindle ebook.

>>Mattingly offers a carefully constructed forensic examination of Plato’s text and cautiously proposes that the Atlantis story “was actually based upon a version of the Libyo-Sea People’s attacks on the Egyptian state during the reigns of Merneptah and Ramesses III. And further, that the Libyan contingent of the said attacks ultimately derived from a base in and around the region of Tunisia and Algeria between the Isle of Djerba and the town of Biskra, a region known to us as the ‘Chotts’ or ‘Djerid’”.

When Storm Eowyn hit Ireland at the the end of January 2025, our home along with that of another 750,000 people were suddenly without power for a number of days. This provided me with a opportunity to look again at some books, including Mattingly’s. I was even more impressed the second time around, not because some of his ideas coincide with mine, but because of the sheer weight of evidence he offers to support his contentions.

Mattingly tackles all the major features in Plato’s Atlantis narrative that have generated controversy, including the Pillars of Herakles, the Atlantic, the size of Atlantis, Lake Tritonis and most importantly the date of the Atlantean wars. This book is just one of a handful that I could recommend as required reading for any student of the Atlantis story.<<